Andre Yoskowitz
13 Jul 2009 17:02
According to new data reported by The Guardian UK, the amount of UK teenagers sharing unauthorized music has fallen dramatically since 2007, while the amount of teens using streaming services has grown exponentially.
The data, based on a survey of 1000 14-to-18 year-olds, shows that pirates have moved to legal venues such as YouTube and Spotify among others.
Along with the streaming increase, up to 65 percent, illegal downloads dropped from 42 percent in December of 2007, to just 26 percent in January of 2009.
The report does state that perhaps the number has fallen so substantially for illegal downloads because users have moved on to copying music from friend's MP3 players as well as sharing using Bluetooth.
Steve Purdham, CEO of We7, adds, via the Guardian: "They may not buy an album, though they have that opportunity, but you can sell them tour tickets and a T-shirt of their favourite band."
Paul Brindley, CEO of Music Ally, added about the report: "These figures challenge the idea that filesharing will just continue to grow. While we don't think for a second that it shows the war against piracy is won, it does at least suggest that there is encouraging news for the music industry."